Local grass-roots beermakers tap a big market

Sunday

Oct 6, 2013 at 2:00 AM

The Catskill/mid-Hudson region's growing number of small breweries start with a simple mission: to make lots and lots of flavorful, quality craft beer. Many end up achieving that goal, and another one: The breweries become the cultural and social hubs of the often-

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Jessica DiNapoli and Leonard Sparks

The region's growing number of small breweries start with a simple mission: to make lots and lots of flavorful, quality craft beer. Many end up achieving that goal, and another one: The breweries become the cultural and social hubs of the often-blighted downtown areas where they set up shop. And, as craft beer explodes in popularity, the new breweries help bring beer aficionados to the region, in search of the best lager or stout.

Keegan Ales has helped make Midtown Kingston — which often plays third fiddle to the Rondout and Stockade District — a destination. In Sullivan County, breweries just getting off the ground have livened up Roscoe and Callicoon.

There's probably no better example of the craft beer industry's revitalizing effects than the Newburgh Brewing Co. in the City of Newburgh. The brewery opened up last year, and has become a community anchor. Competitive teams pack the taproom Wednesday nights for a game of intense trivia.

On a Friday in late September, Paul Halayko, president of the Newburgh Brewing Co., expected 270 people to fill the cavernous taproom to maximum capacity. Art fans participating in Newburgh Open Studios, a walking tour of artist studios in the city, were gathering for a kickoff party at the brewery.

The same night, the brewery was hosting an alumni event for Mount Saint Mary College.

The brewery's bartenders pull endless pints on a busy night like that — which is great for business. But, the brewery may also be helping change Newburgh's image. When visitors have a good time at the brewery, located a block off the busy Newburgh waterfront, their perceptions about the beleaguered city may start to shift, he said.

Local people make up a large component of the crowds leaning against the bar of local breweries most nights.

But, the new beer businesses also help draw people to the Hudson Valley from New York City for "daycations," said Tania Dougherty, founder of the Little Beer Bus, a brewery tour service. She also runs the Little Wine Bus, which visits local wineries.

The Little Beer Bus is a growing business, running between two and four times a month all year long, Dougherty said.

To help market the Hudson Valley as a beer drinker's paradise, she has christened its network of breweries the Hudson Valley Beer Trail.

The name gives the Hudson Valley's burgeoning craft brew industry an identity to outsiders, and helps out breweries, some of which don't have the budget to do their own advertising.

Tommy Keegan, owner of Keegan Ales, said the Little Beer Bus helps bring his brews to people who may have never heard of them before. It also doesn't hurt to have 20 people roll in on a Saturday afternoon, he said.

"They come in, I personally give a beer tour, tell jokes, we slap each other on the back, and they leave with a warm fuzzy feeling" about Keegan Ales, he said.

Keegan began his business 10 years ago by giving away his product for free.

He opened up his production space — an old building in Midtown Kingston that housed a failed brewery — Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons and gave out free beer.

Keegan Ales now hosts a variety of events from live music to trivia to Meet the Brewer Mondays, where Keegan's brewers serve up their own beer creations.

The event is a big hit in the homebrewing community, which Keegan has also helped foster. He teaches people how to brew beer at home, and opened up a homebrew store next door to his brewery.

Keegan's next project is adding another year-round beer or two to his existing roster of three — Mother's Milk, Hurricane Kitty and Old Capital.

The new addition to his roster will likely be one of the beers he's released each month this year in celebration of his 10 years in business.

The decision by 20-somethings Dan Hitchcock and Nikki Cavanaugh to trade their college degrees for the unglamorous toil of making beer was rooted in simple desires: a passion for beer, a disdain for desk jobs and Hitchcock's yearning for a creative outlet.

What started as a hobby — making homebrew in college — became an obsession.

Now Cavanaugh and Hitchcock are behind Chester-based Rushing Duck Brewing Co., one of two craft beer makers in Orange County.

Their biggest problem: satisfying the thirst for locally made beers.

"We can't make beer fast enough," said Hitchcock, 27. "If we could make more beer, it would sell."

What they sell are 10 beers throughout the year, with three mainstays: Beanhead Coffee Porter, Naysayer Pale Ale and Nimptopsical, an English strong ale.

It is an enviable stable of products for a brewery barely a year old and launched on a shoestring budget in a bare, rundown commercial space in Chester.

Family and friends have underwritten the pair's ambitions with money and labor. Hitchcock's father, a HVAC specialist, hooked up the brewery's piping. Friends helped with other tasks, from welding to designing the logo.

Rushing Duck opened in August 2012, with Cavanaugh and Hitchcock distributing their own product before finally going with an established distributor and holding tastings on Saturdays.

They now have 100 accounts and raised $12,000 via Kickstarter. Part of that money paid for barrels to hold aged English-style barley wine. They also added a second tasting day on Fridays, and draw about 200 people each day.

"The first couple of months we were learning a lot of things about the business," said Cavanaugh, 26. "By January, we were way past our expectations."

Jim Seamus finally decided to open the taps in western Sullivan County.

The copper brewers and fermenting tanks had been idled for years as he renovated an unused firehouse on Callicoon's Upper Main Street. Then came the expensive hurdle of installing containment tanks to capture wastewater.

But rather than remain closed until the tanks could be installed, and weary of being asked "when," the retired train conductor hired Pearl River-based Defiant Brewing Co. to make his first beer and opened this past Memorial Day weekend.

A busy summer vindicated his decision and his belief that locals and summer visitors to the tiny hamlet on the Delaware River would flock to a local brewery.

Now Seamus is talking of opening year-round.

"We're hoping to go right through (because) it's been so successful," said Seamus, who plans on making four or five beers.

Callicoon Brewing Company fulfills an idea that started brewing when Seamus came across brewers and fermenters for sale by a Florida brewery and decided making beer sounded like a good idea.

He bought the firehouse, along with the neighboring Olympia Hotel, on Upper Main Street, found a bar while flipping through a penny shopper and bought used booths from a Binghamton restaurant.

Defiant is making the brewery's signature Callicoon Country Lager. Bartender Mary Head serves up the lager and a lineup of other New York breweries, like Rushing Duck and Newburgh Brewing Co.

Soon visitors to Callicoon Brewing Co. will get to see beer brewed as they toss back pints and munch on Reubens and fried hot dogs.

"It's not a cookie-cutter type industry," said Pat Moorhead, who manages the brewery. "Everything's different and everybody's got different types of beer."